Last Day In Antigua

Cute child photo for this post.

 I am up early this morning--dashed downstairs in bare feet on cold Spanish tiles to grab the first two cups of coffee from the hotel pot and head back up to write a bit. I poked my head out the front door just long enough to see a stream of folks headed off to work and school--mostly adults in indigenous dress and children in school uniforms, which are required here.

This shot from around town shows a popular school uniform. School is required until sixth grade, but that isn't rigorously enforced. After sixth, a three-year "middle school" is available, after which children choose a career track for the last three years. Fewer than 50% go for all 12 years.

College training is usually in small, private universities. This one is across the street from our first hotel, Casa Cristina.

This street is about a block from our hotel, on our way to Fernando's coffee and breakfast shop.

This is our street, facing away from the town center.

This is the downstairs patio.

Mark can rev up the laptop and research things to do in this pleasant, quiet downstairs garden.

Here is the front of Casa Florencia, our current hotel.

These folks are coming home from work.

On our first day in town I explored the grocery store while Mark bought a cell phone chip. I surely didn't expect to see this knockout Toy Story setup!

This is the view through the gate into Julia and Stephen's apartment.

We made about half our dinners in their kitchen. Dishes are scarce. I'm using this empty soda bottle as an emergency wine glass. ( I didn't fill it up.)

Antigua has a charming feel of being partly old Europe and partly old-west cowboy town. The walled streets are broken up with painted color swatches along the walls, but one gets practically no views into the interior structures. The rough, cobbled streets also feel (literally) like the old town centers in Spain and Italy. At the same time, I can picture the tough gunslingers of "Gunsmoke" hitching up their horses outside the watering holes that surround the town square.  Actually, after the first capital of Guatemala, Ciudad Vieja, was buried by a volcanic midslide, this town was founded in March 1543 with the name "Muy Leal y Muy Noble Ciudad de Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala." So the cowboy (Caballero) influence was apparently there from the beginning, although historically it seems to be the warriers, not the farmers, who had the most influence. The conquistadors came to claim power and money, which they kept for themselves and sent home to their investors.

At its peak in the early 1700s, Antigua and Lima, Peru were the two most powerful cities in the New World, according to my Moon Guide. Sixty thousand people lived here, one of the first universities and printing presses were established here, and it was a major center of government, art and culture. It was still a Spanish vassal.

Then came the earthquakes. Antigua was flattened once just about 20 years after it was founded. A major building boom followed, and then in the late 1770s a series of quakes drove people to what is now Guatemala City. Antigua's reputation for instability saved it for us. Usually, whether in the pre-classic Mayan ruins or in the conquerors' capitals, buildings get knocked down for new construction. Not here. A few people who loved the city stayed, so it didn't decay, but it also didn't noticeably modernize. The tactful signs in the bathrooms telling us that the plumbing pipes are old, frail and thin so please put toilet tissue in the little basket, not the toilet bowl, are just one indication.

At the center of the city, vendors, tourists, kids, strolling musicans and families fill up the town square and it is especially delightful at night. The light is soft and lovely and plenty of hand-holding, smooching couples are out to enjoy it. If their homes are typical of what was described to us by a Common Hope tour guide, than the town square is a huge luxury, since families may live in one or two rooms with no privacy. (Common Hope, by the way, is the organization Julia is working with and the tour guide admittedly is describing the homes of the poor. But there isn't much of a middle class.) I watched a funny scene last night in which a small boy in a tree kept leaning out over a young couple who had eyes only for each other. He kept hollering "Buenos Noches...BUENOS NOCHES...BUENOS NOCHES" louder and louder, with increasing hand gestures and word modifiers until finally the young lady looked up, made eye contact, and giggled. Maybe it was his sister.

The Catedral de Santiago is the anchor of the town square. The one we see today was built by Pedro de Alvarado, who was sent by Spain in the early 1500s to pacify the territory and send back money to his investors. He donated the funds for the church but built it with Mayan slave labor over 11 years. It did not survive the quakes entirely and what we see today is the facade plus a small piece of the interior and lots of ruins. Don Pedro and his wife are said to be buried here.

Ice cream vendors near town square.

Julia and Stephen made friends with a musician such as this one. He said he left his job as a court reporter in Guatemala City because of his heart condition, but he has a six-year-old to support.

Babies are usually kept wrapped up at the front of Mom's body while they are young, They nurse for a long time, until two or past, according to a book I read, and I've caught several glimpses of toddlers with heads up mom's huipile.

Here is the church at the end of the square. Viewed from the side, you can see a giant support beam holding it in place now that most of the building behind it is in ruins.

 

 

A woman and her children outside the church.

This church was large and impressive before earthquakes did it in.

Carolyn and Stephen church history.

The other buildings surrounding the town square were once military and government offices. The police department and regional government headquarters are still here, as is a government tourist office banks and coffee shops. Actually, the presence of police is reassuring and the Guatemalan tourist agency gets top billing from me for making public areas safe.

The remains of churches and monasteries are scattered around town. One of the most interesting is the monastery of the Capuchinian nuns. An original group was sent by Spain, and women from the indigenous population were recruited. They observed vows of privacy and silence, so that, when they needed to expand to a building across the street, the builders were challenged to get the nuns from one side to the other. They solved it by building a lovely enclosed archway that is now a city landmark. You can go in the monastery (we did) but the walk through the arched tunnel over the street is closed.

Here are photos from the market and just around town.

This is a small, more upscale shop where the woman works at her loom in the back.

This fountain is the center of the handicrafts market, slightly more upscale than the mercado because the shops are under a roof. The whole thing is behind walls with a locking gate.

The Mercado is outdoors and sells everything.

We've enjoyed finding the real Guatemalan foods, but imagine our surprise to find this McDonald's right by the Mercado--so fancy it could be a date night restaurant! The site was huge, with both indoor and outdoor seating, a special coffee and dessert restaurant, and the Antigua equivalent of the quarter-pounder.

 

And on that savory note I'll stop for today. We are working on plans for our next stop--Copan, Honduras, which is known for its examples of Mayan history. I skipped a couple of very wonderful days while in the Antigua area, particularly the day on Lake Atitlan, the tour of Common Hope, and a tour of a coffee farm and music museum in Jocotenango (a small town about 10 minutes outside Antiga). Maybe on a quiet afternoon I'll get them in here, also